Hesiod Quotes

#1. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: It too is a kind of divinity.

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#2. A day is sometimes our mother, sometimes our stepmother.

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#3. Badness you can get easily, in quantity; the road is smooth, and it lies close by, But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it.

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#4. But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man.

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#5. Actions from youth, advice from the middle-aged, prayers from the aged.

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#6. Men must sweat to attain virtue.

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#7. If you add a little to a little and do this often, soon the little will become great.

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#8. It is best to work, at whatever you have a talent for doing, without turning your greedy thought toward what some other man possesses, but take care of your own livelihood, as I advise you.

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#9. In the morning of like, work; in the midday, give counsel; in the evening, pray.

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#10. He is a fool who tries to match his strength with the stronger.

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#11. The half is greater than the whole.

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#12. Preserve the mean; the opportune moment is best in all things.

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#13. Night, having Sleep, the brother of Death.

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#14. Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.

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#15. Never make a companion equal to a brother.

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#16. Badness can be got easily and in shoals; the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows;

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#17. Fools, they do not even know how much more is the half than the whole.

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#18. He's only harming himself who's bent upon harming another

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#19. The ill design is most ill for the designer.

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#20. Never wade through the pretty ripples
of perpetually flowing
rivers, until you have looked at their lovely waters,
and prayed to them,
and washed your hands in the pale enchanting water.

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#21. The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.

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#22. Try to take for a mate a person of your own neighborhood.

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#23. For now indeed is the race of iron; and men never cease from labour and sorrow by day and from perishing by night.

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#24. Bring a wife home to your house when you are of the right age, not far short of 30 years, nor much above; this is the right time for marriage.

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#25. A man who works evil against another works it really against himself, and bad advice is worst for the one who devised it

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#26. It is a hard thing for a man to be righteous, if the unrighteous man is to have the greater right.

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#27. Potter is piqued with potter, joiner with joiner, beggar begrudges beggar, and singer singer.

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#28. Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.

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#29. In work there is no shame; shame is in the idleness.

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#30. Do not get a name as overly lavish or too inhospitable.

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#31. So you, the kings, you too must reflect upon this punishment, because the immortals are here in the midst of manking, observing those who do not hold the gods in awe ... but grind each other down with crooked judgements

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#32. The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.

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#33. Toil is no source of shame; idleness is shame.

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#34. It is from work that men are rich in flocks and wealthy, and a working man is much dearer to the immortals

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#35. I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.

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#36. Love, the fairest among the undying gods, who loosens the limbs of all gods and men,
conquers resolve and prudent counsel within the breast.

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#37. Invite your friend to a feast, but leave your enemy alone; and especially invite the one who lives near you.

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#38. Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.

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#39. From their eyelids as they glanced dripped love.

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#40. The man who is rich in fancy thinks that his wagon is already built; poor fool, he does not know that there are a hundred timbers to a wagon.

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#41. The fool knows after he's suffered.

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#42. He for himself weaves woe who weaves for others woe, and evil counsel on the counselor recoils.

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#43. Invite your friend to dinner; have nothing to do with your enemy.

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#44. Potter is potter's enemy, and craftsman is craftsman's rival; tramp is jealous of tramp, and singer of singer.

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#45. Whoever has trusted a woman has trusted deceivers.

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#46. Labor is no disgrace.

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#47. He fashions evil for himself who does evil to another, and an evil plan does mischief to the planner.

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#48. Long exercise, my friend, inures the mind; And what we once disliked we pleasing find.

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#49. And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men too, when they, at their birth, have grey hair on their temples.

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#50. Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.

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#51. No day is wholly unproductive of good.

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#52. A bad neighbor is as great a calamity as a good one is a great advantage.

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#53. In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.

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#54. Money is life to us wretched mortals.

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#55. A sparing tongue is the greatest treasure among men.

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#56. Love, who is most beautiful among the immortal gods, the melter of limbs, overwhelms in their hearts the intelligence and wise counsel of all gods and all men.

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#57. Love those who love you, help those you help you, and give to those who give to you.

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#58. A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good one is a great blessing.

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#59. It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.

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#60. Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascination of her shape. It's your barn she's after.

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#61. Far best is he who is himself all-wise, and he, too, good who listens to wise words; But whoso is not wise or lays to hear another's wisdom is a useless man.

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#62. The artist envies what the arties gains, The bard the rival bard's successful strains.

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#63. No whispered rumours which the many spread can wholly perish.

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#64. Gossip and rumor are evil; easy to lift up, heavy to carry, and hard to put down again.

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#65. It will not always be summer; build barns.

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#66. Often a whole community together suffers in consequence of a bad man who does wrong and contrives evil

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#67. It is fine to draw on what is on hand, and painful to have need and not have anything there; I warn you to be carful in this. When the bottle has just been opened, and when it's giving out, drink deep; be sparing when it's half-full; but it's useless to spare the fag end.

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#68. Often even a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and contrives presumptuous deeds.

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#69. Do not seek dishonest gains: dishonest gains are losses.

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#70. Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the larger the load, the greater will be the profit upon profit.

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#71. Justice prevails over transgression when she comes to the end of the race.

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#72. Giving is good, but taking is bad and brings death.

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#73. Whoever happens to give birth to mischievous children lives always with unending grief in his spirit and heart.

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#74. Work is not a shame. Laziness is a shame.

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#75. The dawn speeds a man on his journey, and speeds him too in his work.

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#76. Inhibition is no good provider for a needy man

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#77. You trust a thief when you trust a woman.

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#78. So the people will pay the penalty for their kings' presumption, who, by devising evil, turn justice from her path with tortuous speech.

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#79. There was not after all a single kind of strife, but on earth there are two kinds: one of them a man might praise when he recognized her, but the other is blameworthy.

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#80. The man who procrastinates struggles with ruin.

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#81. Neither make thy friend equal to a brother; but if thou shalt have made him so, be not the first to do him wrong.

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#82. Best is the man who thinks for himself.

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#83. Let it please thee to keep in order a moderate-sized farm, that so thy garners may be full of fruits in their season.

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#84. For here now is the age of iron. Never by daytime will there be an end to hard work and pain, nor in the night to weariness, when the gods will send anxieties to trouble us.

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#85. We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.

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#86. For a man can win nothing better than a good wife, and nothing more painful than a bad one.

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#87. Drink your fill when the jar is first opened, and when it is nearly done, but be sparing when it is half-empty; it's a poor savingwhen you come to the dregs.

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#88. Let the price fixed with a friend be sufficient, and even dealing with a brother call in witnesses, but laughingly.

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#89. False shame accompanies a man that is poor, shame that either harms a man greatly or profits him; shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth.

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#90. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus

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#91. It is not possible either to trick or escape the mind of Zeus.

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#92. Keep adding little by little and it will become a big heap.

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#93. He is senseless who would match himself against a stronger man; for he is deprived of victory and adds suffering to disgrace.

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#94. Man's chiefest treasure is a sparing tongue.

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#95. Acquisition means life to miserable mortals.

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#96. There is also an evil report; light, indeed, and easy to raise, but difficult to carry, and still more difficult to get rid of.

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#97. Bacteria: The only culture some people have.

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#98. The Gods rank work above virtues.

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#99. The best man of all is he who knows everything himself. Good also the man who accepts another's sound advice; but the man who neither knows himself nor takes to hear what another says, he is no good at all.

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#100. If you should put even a little on a little and should do this often, soon this would become big.

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